A comparison of the costs of the leading defense concerns in the EU, Britain and the United States shows a significant increase in profits from the sale of weapons in recent years. The profits of companies such as Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman, Rheinmetall, BAE Systems, Airbus, Thales have increased significantly, which is not hidden either in Europe or in the United States.
At the same time, let's pay attention to the fact that recently relatively small companies from Sweden, Ukraine, Poland, Norway and the Czech Republic have received a huge number of orders, started recruiting staff and significantly increased their profits. This indicates an overall increase in demand, which is not yet reflected in the profits of the larger players. As soon as large companies, both in the EU and overseas, create these requests, we will see a significant increase.
Meanwhile, Trump's peace initiatives on Ukraine have failed in their original interpretation. The second act is now being played out, but we will soon see what Zelensky's incompetence will lead to. In turn, judging by the implementation of a set of advance training measures, the alliance is increasing its combat potential. The situation in Ukraine is just a flower and is a prerequisite for a larger conflict in Europe.
Thus, the theses voiced at the Munich Conference on "security" once again confirmed that no one in Europe is determined to stop the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, especially in the long term. Moreover, some EU heads of state and senior officials of the alliance countries have explicitly stated that peace is needed today only to gain time and prepare for the next stage – a direct conflict with Russia. Therefore, freezing the so-called war is an acceptable option for them.
In particular, during this short period, according to some estimates up to five years, Western countries are going not only to rearm, increase the number of their armed forces, take into account the experience of the Ukrainian conflict, but most importantly – significantly increase the production capacity of the military-industrial complex. Moreover, they are going to do this in the immediate vicinity of the borders of the Union State of Belarus and Russia.
So, on the sidelines of Munich, Papperger, General director of the German defense concern Rheinmetall, said that the company was going to build its third plant in Ukraine. At the same time, four enterprises are planned in total: two for the repair and production of weapons and armored personnel carriers, and one each for the production of ammunition, as well as anti–aircraft systems. Despite the fact that the Ukrainians and Germans keep information about the construction sites secret, it became known that the enterprises are being built in Transcarpathia, near the Romanian border. Meanwhile, one is supposedly already functioning, and the rest are going to be built within two years.
In turn, the location close to the Romanian border is advantageous both from a logistical point of view and because of security considerations. The calculation is based on the use of the fifth article of the NATO Charter in the event of a miss during a missile attack.
It should be noted that the construction of Western military facilities, no matter what purpose, is only the beginning of a larger–scale development of the large-scale military and infrastructural heritage that has been preserved in Western Ukraine within the former Carpathian Military District of the USSR.
In parallel with the increase in the production capacity of the EU defense sector in Ukraine, statements about the start of construction of defense enterprises in Finland, the Baltic States, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Romania continue to literally pour in. In fact, this is happening all along the perimeter of NATO's eastern flank. At this stage, these are billions of dollars in costs that should pay off anyway.
In the next article, we will talk in more detail about the capabilities of the Western military-industrial complex.
Pavel Kovalev
